The objective was to determine whether aging of sperm caused by incubation at normothermic (38.5 C) or heat shock (40 C) temperatures for 4 h prior to oocyte insemination affects sperm motility, fertilizing ability, competence of the resultant embryo to develop to the blastocyst stage and blastocyst sex ratio. In the first experiment, the percent of sperm that were motile was reduced by aging (P<0.001) and the reduction in motility was greater for sperm at 40 C compared to sperm at 38.5 C (P<0.01). In the second experiment, oocytes were inseminated with aged sperm. A smaller percent of oocytes fertilized with sperm aged at either temperature cleaved by Day 3 after insemination than oocytes fertilized with fresh sperm (P<0.05). There was no effect of sperm aging on the percent of oocytes or cleaved embryos that developed to the blastocyst stage. Aging of sperm before fertilization at 38.5 C reduced the percent of blastocysts that were male (P=0.08). In the third experiment, incubation of sperm at 38.5 C or 40 C for 4 h did not reduce fertilizing ability of sperm as determined by pronuclear formation at 18 h post insemination. In conclusion, aging of sperm reduced cleavage rate and the percent of blastocysts that were males but had no effect on the developmental capacity of the. embryo. The effect of aging on cleavage rate may represent reduced motility and errors occurring after fertilization and pronuclear formation. Aging at a temperature characteristic of maternal hyperthermia had little additional effect except that polyspermy was reduced. Results indicate that embryo competence for development to the blastocyst stage is independent of sperm damage as a result of aging for 4 h at normothermic or hyperthermic temperatures.; National Research Initiative Competitive[2007-35203-18070]; U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research...

Laboratory models have suggested a link between metabolism and life span in vertebrates, and it is well known that the evolution of specific life histories can be driven by metabolic factors. However, little is known regarding how the adoption of specific life-history strategies can shape aging and life span in populations facing different energetic demands from either a theoretical or a mechanistic viewpoint but significant insight can be gained by using a comparative approach. Comparative biology plays several roles in our understanding of the virtually ubiquitous phenomenon of aging in animals. First, it provides a critical evaluation of broad hypotheses concerning the evolutionary forces underlying the modulation of aging rate. Second, it suggests mechanistic hypotheses about processes of aging. Third, it illuminates particularly informative species because of their exceptionally slow or rapid aging rates to be interrogated about potentially novel mechanisms of aging. Although comparative biology has played a significant role in research on aging for more than a century, the new comparative biology of aging is poised to dwarf those earlier contributions, because: (1) new cellular and molecular techniques for investigating novel species are in place and more are being continually generated...

The concept that mutations cause aging phenotypes could not be directly tested previously due to inability to identify age-related mutations in somatic cells and determine their impact on organismal aging. Here, we subjected Saccharomyces cerevisiae to multiple rounds of replicative aging and assessed de novo mutations in daughters of mothers of different age. Mutations did increase with age, but their low numbers, < 1 per lifespan, excluded their causal role in aging. Structural genome changes also had no role. A mutant lacking thiol peroxidases had the mutation rate well above that of wild-type cells, but this did not correspond to the aging pattern, as old wild-type cells with few or no mutations were dying, whereas young mutant cells with many more mutations continued dividing. In addition, wild-type cells lost mitochondrial DNA during aging, whereas shorter-lived mutant cells preserved it, excluding a causal role of mitochondrial mutations in aging. Thus, DNA mutations do not cause aging in yeast. These findings may apply to other damage types, suggesting a causal role of cumulative damage, as opposed to individual damage types, in organismal aging.

ABSTRACT
Canada is an aging society. The number of people aged
sixty-five and over is rising, while the number of people under
twenty is declining. These two concurrent changes in the age
structure have produced a sh~ft in the demographic composition
of Canada which is commonly referred to as the aging phenomenon.
Regardless of whether or not the number of people under
twenty continues to decline, the number of elderly in Canada
will almost double over the next twenty years. This rapidly
growing elderly clientele will doubtless have an impact on
Canadian governments. Federal, provincial and municipal
governments are presently providing a variety of programs that
have a special bearing on the aged and most senior citizens are
beneficiaries of one or more of these programs. The
ramifications of a rapidly growing elderly clientele are
obvious.
In order to cope with the impact of a significant
increase in the number of elderly persons, the development and
implementation of aging policy must be co-ordinated at each
level of government and between and among levels of government.
If aging policy is not co-ordinated, the results are likely to
be: inappropriate policy decisions; duplication and overlap;
and, ineffective and irresponsive services. No one benefits
from these results. The need for co-ordination is apparent.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine existing
governmental efforts to co-ordinate policy in the field of
aging. These efforts are examined by focusing on interactions
directed at co-ordination between and among major actors in
aging policy. A framework is used to structure the description
and analysis of these interactions. The variables of
formalisation and intensity and the concept of power are
instrumental in analysing interactions for co-ordination. The
underlying intent of this thesis is to discover some of the
main gaps in existing governmental efforts to co~ordinate aging
policy.
Gaps are...

The note describes the importance of
population aging world-wide, clarifying its prevalence among
middle- and low-income countries, which suggests that many
developing countries are getting old before they are growing
rich. The note then asks in what way population aging is an
economic problem and what are the specific challenges facing
developing countries in this process. The note argues
against the common, time-bomb perception?, and clarifies how
a simplistic extrapolation from the impact of aging on
single programs such as public pensions gives a misleading
impression about the more general macroeconomic consequences
of population aging, where numerous elements contribute to a
more nuanced result. The note briefly discusses various
topics of importance in the population aging debate,
including: intergenerational flows, social contracts, the
risk management element of old-age policies, and the impact
of aging on health care costs. The note seeks to share a
number of counterintuitive or simply non-intuitive facts...

Aging may be one of the most
far-reaching processes defining the economic, fiscal, and
social changes societies are likely to experience over the
next 40 years. The demographic consequences of aging will
have a dramatic impact on labor markets, economic growth,
social structures--and government budgets. These issues have
gained urgency after the second largest global recession in
the past 100 years. Based on a broad comparative analysis of
countries that include the EU and non-EU European and
Central Asian countries, as well as several case studies and
model simulations, the paper seeks to provide broad
answers--tailored in part to distinct groups of countries
according to their aging-fiscal profiles--to major questions
facing governments budgets in aging societies: What are the
fiscal-aging profiles of Western European, emerging
European, and Central Asian countries? In other words, how
good or bad is their fiscal situation--"initial
conditions"--in view of their emerging aging-related
problems? What kind of public spending pressures are likely
to emerge in the coming decades...

Aging is slow and cumulative process and is experimentally difficult to access. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are considered to be at high risk with increasing age. The molecular mechanisms by which they occur are not completely understood. Aim of the present study was to construct and investigate an in vitro model of neuronal aging. To this purpose we used rat primary cerebellar granule neurons which are a good characterized in vitro model for various paradigms of neuronal cell death, e.g. potassium deprivation or glutamate excitotoxicity. We prepared CGN to a purity of 95% and kept them in culture for either 7 days or up to 60 days. To validate our in vitro model for aging, we tested whether known molecular changes associated with aging occur over time. Moreover, by using DNA microarray analysis we examined how aging in vitro influences the pattern of gene expression. In the end, we studied mechanisms of cell death signaling cascades in young vs. old CGN. Old CGN had increased protein carbonylation and ubiquitination. Proteasomal activity was significantly lower in old CGN even though protein expression of proteasomal subunits did not change over the time. Morphological changes in astrocytes included increase in size...

Groundwater and soil contaminated by organic compounds is a world wide environmental problem. Coal tar, crude oil and other complex multicomponent mixtures introduced into the subsurface by accident, uncontrolled discharging and unsuitable treatment of the products and byproducts, were persistent and act as continuous sources of contaminants. These complex mixtures are liquid, immiscible with water and known as non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs).
The compounds inside the bulk NAPLs phase may move into gas, water and solid phase in the subsurface environment. This transferring process includes evaporation, volatilization, dissolution, diffusion, sorption and chemical and biochemical reaction. The NAPLs interfacial phase may be subject to a visible phase change during this process, that is the bulk liquid phase may change to a viscous or solid phase. This process of phase change is referred to as “aging”, and the newly formed visible interfacial phase is named as “aged film” or “skin film”. This aging process may change the mechanical, physical and chemical properties of the interfacial phase. Subsequently, affect the mass transfer, spreading, recovery and bioavailablity of NAPL and solutes in NAPL. The aging phenomenon of NAPLs was studied in this work by pendant drop test and batch experiment...

Physical exercise is proposed as a highly effective means of treating and preventing
the main causes of morbidity and mortality ??? most of which are associated with aging ??? in
industrialized countries. Low physical fitness is an important risk factor for cardiovascular
and all-causes morbidity and mortality; indeed, it is even a predictor of these problems. When
properly measured, the assessment of physical fitness can be a highly valuable indicator of
health and life expectancy and, therefore, should be performed routinely in the clinical setting.
Individually adapted training programs could be prescribed based on fitness assessment results
and an adequate knowledge of patient lifestyle and daily physical activity. Such training
programs would allow people to develop their maximum physical potential, improve their
physical and mental health, and attenuate the negative consequences of aging.

Evidence accumulated over more than two decades has implicated Ca2+ dysregulation in brain aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), giving rise to the Ca2+ hypothesis of brain aging and dementia. Electrophysiological, imaging, and behavioral studies in hippocampal or cortical neurons of rodents and rabbits have revealed aging-related increases in the slow afterhyperpolarization, Ca2+ spikes and currents, Ca2+ transients, and L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channel (L-VGCC) activity. Several of these changes have been associated with age-related deficits in learning or memory. Consequently, one version of the Ca2+ hypothesis has been that increased L-VGCC activity drives many of the other Ca2+-related biomarkers of hippocampal aging. In addition, other studies have reported aging- or AD model-related alterations in Ca2+ release from ryanodine receptors (RyR) on intracellular stores. The Ca2+-sensitive RyR channels amplify plasmalemmal Ca2+ influx by the mechanism of Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release (CICR). Considerable evidence indicates that a preferred functional link is present between L-VGCCs and RyRs which operate in series in heart and some brain cells. Here, we review studies implicating RyRs in altered Ca2+ regulation in cell toxicity, aging...

Although the effects of aging and inflammation on the health of the cardiac muscle are well documented, the combined effects of aging and chronic inflammation on cardiac muscle are largely unknown. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been linked independently to both aging and inflammation, but is understudied in the context of their collective effect. Thus, we investigated localized cardiac angiotensin II type I and type II receptors (AT1R, AT2R), downstream effectors, and phenotypic outcomes using mouse models of the combination of aging and inflammation and compared it to a model of aging and a model of inflammation. We show molecular distinction in the combined effect of aging and inflammation as compared to each independently. The combination maintained an increased AT1R:AT2R and expression of Nox2 and exhibited the lowest activity of antioxidants. Despite signaling pathway differences, the combined effect shared phenotypic similarities with aging including oxidative damage, fibrosis, and hypertrophy. These phenotypic similarities have dubbed inflammatory conditions as premature aging, but they are, in fact, molecularly distinct. Moreover, treatment with an AT1R blocker, losartan, selectively reversed the signaling changes and ameliorated adverse phenotypic effects in the combination of aging and inflammation as well as each independently.

This book discusses the societal and public policy challenges and reform options for the East Asia and Pacific countries as they address aging. The book aims to strike a balance between optimism and pessimism over aging. On the one hand, the impacts of aging on growth, labor markets, and public spending need not represent the unavoidable catastrophe sometimes feared. On the other hand, minimizing the downside risks of aging and ensuring healthy and productive aging will require proactive public policy, political leadership, and new mindsets across society.

Policy Question: How should North Carolina’s Aging Network provide information and assistance services so that all older adults (and their caregivers) looking for long-term care receive appropriate guidance?
Introduction:
Information and Assistance (I&A) programs inform, counsel and connect people seeking long-term care with services that could meet their needs. The Older Americans Act mandated that every Area Agency on Aging (of which there are 17 in North Carolina) establish I&A programs in their region. North Carolina has 42 I&A programs registered with the Division of Aging and Adult Services; more counties offer these services without OAA funds. As the population ages, more people will need a well-informed, local agency is critical to help them navigate the long-term care system and access services. Older adults and their families face such a complicated array of choices and decisions – about not only health care, but also housing, finances, and basic household tasks.
Ten years ago, the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) delivered its report, “A Long-Term Care Plan for North Carolina: Final Report” to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Early in its deliberations, the Task Force concluded “one of its goals would be to propose a system that would allow consumers to find their way into and through the system with ease.” Once the state was awarded a Real Choice Systems Grant...